Ethics and Philosophy

Period 2 - Project 2011

Welcome to our to PhiloEthics!

• Introductory Game• Stand up and find a

partner(someone you don’t know)• Talk to each other about

yourselves – your name, where you live, brothers/sisters, why you are in this class

• Now introduce each other

Introductions 1• My school –

Claremont Fan Court School- see photos

• Head of Religion and Ethics and Gifted and Talented Coordinator

• Teacher for nearly 20 years

• Born and brought up in Africa.

• First job was running an Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya

Overview of the course

Week 1• Introductions • The Tools of the Philosopher• What is Art?

Week 2• Advanced Tools of the Philosopher • What is Politics?• Are Science and Religion Incompatible?

Week 3• Assessing a Philosophical Argument• Creating Philosophical Arguments

The Tools of the Philospher

What is the method/approach/system of philosophy?

Write down your answer

Method of Philosophy

Philosophical Argument

What is a philosophical argument?

• The search for the truth• Made up of:• Sentences called

“premises”• And conclusion

Philosophers are very precise

For them an argument is a “basic complete unit of reason”

It is an inference from one or more starting points (premises) to an end point (a conclusion)

But it all depends on the truth

For example:

Since the DNA, the fingerprints and the eyewitnesses all point to Wayne. It follows that he must be the thief.

But how do we know if the premises themselves are acceptable?

Grounds for truth of premises

• It has been proved elsewhere – but infinite regress

• True by definition –”all bachelors are unmarried”

Others are called basic premises – think of examples for these• True because they are self evident

perceptions or those taken for granted

• Because they are rooted in sense data

• Because they are based on instinct or intuition

• Because they are revealed to us by God

• Because they are based on cognitive (mental) faculties

Our Blog

PhiloEthicsProject2011• Have a look• Type in your first name then:• Create a post about your thoughts

on what we have done each day• It’ll be a good record for you • And great to see what others say

Find it at: http://philoethicsproject2011.wordpress.com/

What is Art?What do you think it is?Ask others – art class etc.

Watch this videoHttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZXOL-HUfWM

Tracy Emin’s Bed

The Definition Game

• Trying to discover what it is that defines art.

• i.e. Those features which is both necessary and sufficient to call art “art”

• What solution do you come up with?

Counterexamples

• What counterexamples have we come up with?

Philosophical question

Philosopher’s answer

Counterexample

Another philosopher’s

answerCounterexamp

le

Another philosopher’s

answer

Counterexample

Wittgenstein’s family resemblances

solution• Picture of a family

Formula solution

• Such as – can we find 3 out of 6 features that pieces of art have in common?

• Problems with this – can we actually do it? What features would we choose?

Again Wittgenstein

• He made us realise that we define by explaining using examples and drawing attention to similarities and differences

• He thought that formulae which try to capture precision are counter productive because it limits our understanding

Institutional Theory – it must have these two features

• It must be an artefact (something worked on)

• It must have the status of art conferred on it by someone in the art world – gallery owner, art critic, publisher, collector, artist

• Hence Tracy Emin’s bed is considered art but not mine!!

Criticisms of Institutional Theory

• It does not tell us why it is art, only that it is art

• It gives us no understanding of how to evaluate art – good or bad

We have been playing the Definition Game

• The hunt for a feature or series of features the possession of which is both necessary and sufficient to qualify something as a work of art.

Wittgenstein’s great contribution to philosophy is to question the assumption that lies behind the game.

In the case of art why assume that for art to be art all works must have something in common.

What is Philosophy?

• Matt Groening -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd3mUGo2WFE&feature=related

• What is Philosophy? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfYw9OqD8YA –

• Stephen Fry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpI7-HYaX-k

Over to you

• Wikispaces comments, quotes, ideas

• Start working on your idea for your final piece which is your philosophical argument done in any way you want

• Set yourself a philosophical challenge

• Then create an argument that meets that challenge

• Be creative in how you convey the argument